A typical non-motorized or manually operated pipette control arrangement includes a housing that incorporates a pumping system and a pipette connecting mechanism for either fixedly of removably connecting a pipette to the housing. Some of these arrangements include a thumb operated mechanical system for controlling the aspiration and dispensing of liquids by the pipette.
Various prior art pipette control arrangements exist and are effective in aspirating and dispensing liquids through a pipette. The pipette control arrangements of the prior art, however, generally suffer from one or more drawbacks and limitations that oftentimes render them undesirable or unsuitable for a specific use. Generally these drawbacks and limitations stem from the device being unable to efficiently accommodate a wide variety of volumes of liquid and are therefore limited to certain pipettes having specific volumetric capacities. Furthermore, these devices suffer from the inability to rapidly dispense large volumes of liquid.
By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,527,437 discloses a manually operated pipette control system incorporating a thumb wheel operated mechanical system coupled with a bellows type pumping system. It would be obvious that this device is limited to a certain volume of liquid that may be aspirated and or dispensed by a pipette based upon the dimensions of the bellows pumping system. In addition, it is obvious that even if a user wished to rapidly dispense all or substantially all of the contents of an attached pipette, that the user must repeatedly operate thumb wheel and other mechanical elements associated therewith, until such liquid is dispensed.
Accordingly, there is a well-established need for a pipette control system that avoids the drawbacks and limitations of the prior art. In particular, it would be desirable to provide a pipette control system that is capable of accommodating a plurality of cylinder-plunger pumping systems having a variety of volumetric capacity. Further, it would be desirable to provide a pipette control system that includes a quick release mechanism for rapidly introducing air into and or releasing an existing vacuum in the pipette control system, which allows for the rapid discharge of any liquid present in the pipette. Still further, it would be desirable to provide a pipette control system that is relatively simple and inexpensive in construction and which is adapted for convenient operation by a user.